Ride The Rockies tour director Chandler Smith takes questions Monday at his office in Denver while preparing for the 29th annual tour, which starts Sunday in Boulder. This year’s six-day ride over 471 miles from Boulder to Golden marks Smith’s seventh as tour director. (Bryan Boyle, The Denver Post)

On Monday at his office in downtown Denver, Ride The Rockies tour director Chandler Smith and his staff were busy putting the finishing touches on the 2014 ride, which starts Sunday in Boulder. Smith managed to find some time for an exclusive question-and-answer session with The Denver Post about this year’s course, which covers 471 miles and 30,000 feet of elevation in six days and ends in Golden.

Smith also touched on the history of Ride The Rockies, facets beyond the cycling and elements that could change in the future.

Can you provide a brief overview of Ride The Rockies for those readers who might not be at all familiar with the annual bicycle tour in Colorado?

Chandler Smith: It’s a premier recreational road ride here in Colorado that has both a national and international following. We often have representation from over 12 countries and typically all 50 states. After its inaugural year in 1986, Ride The Rockies went to a lottery process because it was wildly popular. We take 2,000 cyclists every year, and our intent is to showcase a number of Colorado’s mountain communities with a different route every summer.

There’s a nice economic driver behind Ride The Rockies, where these towns benefit greatly from participants spending money through retail, lodging and dining. For a number of years that’s something these towns really got behind, because it put smaller communities on the map. What began to happen is the tour would expose these communities that cyclists knew nothing about and they’d fall in love with their towns. And they come back as tourists. Or for that matter, I’ve heard stories where cyclists have returned to buy property as second or first homes.

What is the history of your involvement with Ride The Rockies, and how and when did you become the tour’s director?

Chandler Smith: This is my seventh year as tour director for Ride The Rockies. This year also marks close to a dozen in the cycling industry.

Prior to Ride The Rockies, I was the director for what’s now referred to as Bike MS; back then it was the MS 150, which is a large charity ride for multiple sclerosis. It’s where I cut my teeth. Then when the Ride The Rockies position became available, which was certainly a coveted opportunity, there were just a handful of us that had tour-director experience. I believe Tracy (The Denver Post Community executive director Tracy Ulmer), my boss, reached out to a number of those folks. My hunch is after she reached out and gauged interest, we all put our names in the hat. I just had the good fortune to get the nod.

In 2012, I asked a former colleague whether he was interested in running the Chicago Marathon. Two weeks later, he asked if I was interested in Ride the Rockies. I got a road bike, got on the tour, and have yet to regret it. This will be my third RTR.

Daniel Petty is the digital director of sports for The Denver Post. He competed in track and cross country all four years inc college, but that was six years ago. Now, he's doing Ride the Rockies for the first time.